Turkey accounts for quarter of malware attacks in Middle East

• Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt have seen a large spike in malware attacks in the first half of this year.
• Hackers have become more targeted with their attack strategies, focusing on AP-type attacks aimed to steal sensitive data.
• Proactive malware protection is essential to safeguard individual users and corporates against these threats, Kaspersky says.

Malware attacks in the Middle East increase by 17 per cent to 161 million compared to 138 million in the first half of this year, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky reports.

Turkey accounts for around a quarter of malware attacks in the region (44 million), followed by Egypt (42 million), United Arab Emirates (34 million), Oman (14 million), Kuwait (11 million) and Bahrain (5 million).

The growth in each country in the region varies.

Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt have seen a large spike in malware attacks, increasing by 67 per cent, 64 per cent, 45 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively. Qatar and the UAE show lower increases of 16 per cent and 7 per cent.

Interestingly, in the region, Turkey was also the only country that saw a slight decrease of 4.4 per cent in all malware attacks in the first half of this year when compared to the same period last year.

“Despite the large increases in all malware attacks that we have seen in the Middle Eastern countries we monitor, it is not surprising to also see a slight decrease in some of the larger countries and like in Turkey,” Maher Yamout, Senior Security Researcher for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Kaspersky, said.

“This emphasises how hackers have become more targeted with their attack strategies, focusing on advanced persistent threat (APT) type attacks aimed to steal sensitive data,” he said.

Attractive target

Even though the scourge of malware has always been of concern, he said that the past 12-months have highlighted how hackers are refocusing their efforts to compromise consumer and corporate systems and gain access to critical data and information.

Given the growth in digital transformation since last year and considering the increase in remote working resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, Middle East has become an attractive target for those looking to exploit a lack of user education or cybersecurity understanding, he said.

With so many people working remotely and accessing corporate networks from their personal devices, companies must contend with a rapidly expanding attack surface. These devices might not have an adequate level of protection meaning that once they are compromised and an employee logs into the network, hackers can potentially get access to sensitive data and cripple the organisation.

“Malware can get onto a device in several ways. For example, clicking on an infected link or advert, opening an attachment in a spam email or downloading a malicious app. This means proactive malware protection is essential to safeguard individual users and corporates against these threats,” Yamout said.

Best practices to malware protection

• Install anti-virus software on every device that connects to the Internet.
• Only download applications from trusted sites. Even then, always check the app permissions and, if certain things do not make sense, do not install the programme.
• Never click on unverified links especially when coming from suspected spam emails, messages, or suspicious-looking Websites.
• Keeping operation systems and applications always updated with the latest patches.
• Be wary of using free Wi-Fi at coffee shops, restaurants, and other places as hackers can snoop for unprotected devices.